Salima Bhimani

Salima Bhimani works in the areas of education, the arts, and Muslim women and community development. Her current work examines Muslim arts organizations and collectives across North America, looking at the intersection of arts, activism and faith. Her chapter in Wildfire: Art as Activism (Ed. Deborah Bandt, Sumach Press, 2006) is entitled “Reconstructing Our Culture of Ilm (Knowledge): Muslim Women Represent Themselves.”

She is the founding director of the Canadian-based Muslim Women’s Collective, which is committed to the artistic, intellectual and spiritual enhancement of Muslim women and youth. As a teacher at the secondary school level, she has designed curriculum integrating interfaith dialogue into world religions coursework, including youth conferences on sustainable interfaith relations. Additional interfaith work includes women’s dialogues. She is the author of Majalis al-ilm: Seasons of Knowledge, Reclaiming and Representing the Lives of Muslim Women.

She wrote and directed the play, Rewriting the Script: A Young Muslim Woman’s Journey. This large-scale production debuted Oct 1, 2005 in Toronto; remounting is planned. Her master’s degree was on Muslim women, globalization and representation.